Chelsea's Jake Clarke-Salter during Carabao Cup 3rd Round match between Chelsea and Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge Stadium, London, England on 20 Sept 2017. (Photo by Kieran Galvin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
According to Football Insider (h/t Birmingham Live), Chelsea are prepared to send academy prospect Jake Clarke-Salter out on yet another loan spell away from Stamford Bridge.
The 23-year-old centre-back has been linked with a loan move to Nottingham Forest this summer after earning rave reviews for his performances while on loan at Birmingham City in the Championship last season. (h/t Birmingham Live)
However, as per the report, Chelsea are on the verge of finalising a temporary move for the England U-21 international to join French Ligue 1 side Brest for the 2020-21 campaign.
A product of Chelsea’s academy, Jake Clarke-Salter won several major honours over the course of his illustrious youth career in Cobham, winning 3 FA Youth Cups and 2 UEFA Youth League titles across various age-group levels.
The highly-rated central defender made his first-team bow for the Blues as a late substitute against Aston Villa in the Premier League back in the 2015-16 season. Clarke-Salter was loaned out to Bristol Rovers in League One to gain more professional experience and has since gone through loan spells at Vitesse Arnhem, Sunderland and Birmingham City.
Jake Clarke-Salter was once regarded as the heir apparent to the throne of John Terry in Chelsea’s youth ranks. But the U-20 World Cup winner hasn’t really managed to break into the first-team picture at Stamford Bridge like several of his fellow academy graduates at Cobham.
The centre-back has enjoyed varying degrees of success in his loan spells but his chances of featuring in Frank Lampard’s first-team plans look very slim. The Blues have added Malang Sarr and Thiago Silva to their existing central defensive cavalry of Andreas Christensen, Fikayo Tomori, Antonio Rudiger and Kurt Zouma, thus pushing Clarke-Salter further down the pecking order.
The 23-year-old needs to play regularly at the senior level to fulfil his potential and make a name for himself in the professional game. It wouldn’t make any sense for him to stay at Chelsea and play for the U-23s, so a loan move elsewhere should be a fair settlement for all parties involved.
Chelsea are already very well-stocked in their options at the heart of the defence and it’s clear that Lampard has no room to accommodate Jake Clarke-Salter in his plans. Having said that, the Blues shouldn’t hesitate to arrange another loan spell for the Englishman before the October deadline.